PixelTree

Launched in 2013, the Chromebook Pixel features a touch screen with the highest pixel density of any laptop, invisible to the unaided eye. Obscura’s challenge was to creatively utilize 60 Chromebook Pixel laptops to demonstrate the interactive touch screen and retina display features through a communal interactive experience.

Obscura’s concept involved two rows of 30 laptops each, arranged in a circle, with a resolution of 76,800 x 3,400 pixels. This, combined with 60 channels of audio, created an interactive art sculpture called “PixelTree”.

The installation enabled people to draw musical paths on the screens with their fingertips, which triggered networked media and musical notes—harp and aquatic sounds—that played simultaneously across the laptops. Each individual gesture rippled across the screens, overlapping with other gestures, resulting in a multi-user visual and aural symphony.